Emergency
Is it an emergency?
If you are already worried, ring now: 01291 496 0169, at any hour. Otherwise, choose what you can see below. This is general guidance, and it does not replace a vet looking at your horse.
What can you see?
- ColicRolling, pawing, looking at the belly, off food
- Sudden lamenessWon’t put the foot down, or is suddenly very sore
- A woundA cut, a puncture, or anything bleeding
- A sore eyeClosed, weeping, swollen or looking different
- FoalingShe has started, or the foal is not right
Ring today. Ring now if it will not put the foot down.
Most sudden, severe lameness is a foot abscess, which is sore and fixable. But the same picture can come from a fracture or a joint infection, and those need us quickly. Sore on both front feet and rocking back can be laminitis, which is an emergency.
Ring straight away if
- Leg hanging, swinging or at a strange angle: do not move the horse
- Both front feet sore, leaning back, not wanting to walk (laminitis)
- A wound near the lame leg, however small it looks
While we drive
- Bring it in on a deep bed, on the shortest possible walk.
- Look at the foot: a stone, a nail, a hot hoof, a pounding pulse at the fetlock.
- Cold-hose any swelling for twenty minutes.
- If you find a nail, leave it where it is, and ring us.
Please do not
- Do not trot it up to see whether it is better.
- Do not give a painkiller before we have spoken.
- Do not pull out anything that has gone into the foot.
General guidance, not a diagnosis. If what you see does not fit this page, or you just do not like the look of your horse, ring. You know your horse, and that counts.
Worried? Ring. Nobody here minds an unnecessary call.
A vet answers, day or night, and advice on the phone is free. For everything else, there is a round day.